There's an expert-level debate going on in the comments of Wednesday's quantum essentials post, and I do have some thoughts on the matter that I will eventually type up (in a top-level post rather than a comment, at this point). It's Friday, though, and I'm kind of fried. So here's some wibbling about pop music instead.
On the way into work this morning, the Bryan Adams chestnut "Summer of '69" came on the radio. I'm probably destroying any credibility I have on the subject of popular music by saying that I have an unironic fondness for that tune, primarily for nostalgia reasons, but also because as dopey as it is, it's still a well-crafted pop tune.
Of course, it also occurred to me that my high school graduation is now at least as far back as the actual summer of 1969 was when I was in high school and that song was popular (Adams would've been something like five in 1969, so it's not like it was a genuine memory for him, either). Damn, I'm old.
That does raise a good question, though: What year you would use if you were to set out in 2010 to write an anthemic pop tune about some idealized year in the past? I'll cast this in poll form, for those who love radio buttons, but feel free to explain your rationale in the comments:
Deep thoughts on quantum physics will come later. I have to run off to give lab tours, now.
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Whichever one scans best in the context of the rest of the song.
"69" very well might have nothing to do with the YEAR, man.
And I have to say I really prefer Hanna Pakarinen's cover to the original, but it's a fun song regardless.
I have to go with before 1985, because I think you have to go back to high school days to write a anthemic pop tune, and man, am I getting old!
I gotta go with 1999, which is the year before it all went to crap. Plus there is already a perfectly good pop song extolling its awesomeness.
As an American, I'd have to say 1976. That was the bicentennial year, and we still had the illusion that we could pull ourselves together even if the preceding few years had been nasty both economically and politically. Contra Pam #4, I think things were already going off the rails by 1978 (most of it not Carter's fault).
I went with 1985 because that's the year that I graduated from high school. However, Bowling for Soup already wrote the definitive song (titled "1985") for that year.
Correction: Apparently the song 1985 was written by SR-71, but the most well-known version is by Bowling for Soup.
1994 is considered by many people (some might say snobs) to be the pinnacle of hip-hop music and culture.
1998: We stopped ten-in-a-row and it was my second year at uni. Awesome year.
Man, you folks are young!
I'd pick either the summer of 1968, when I got to visit San Francisco while things were still "interesting", the summer of 1971, and the summer of 1976 (in that order).
All for different reasons.
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
. . .
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles' first LP.
Has to be sometime pre-Nixon or even pre-LBJ.
before them, we really believed we could save the world, establish justice, and provide for the common good.
[sigh]
Of course, nobody remembers the economic good done during the Clinton administration.
The comment thread really shows the age of the commentariat here. I voted for '94. I was in middle school, and (as much as I was never a fan of his music) Kurt Cobain's death was probably the defining cultural moment of my generation and those up to 8 or so years older than I am.
More importantly, it was the year of the Rwandan genocide and end of South African apartheid (and the election of Mandela).
It was also the year of Harding-Kerrigan, the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, and Woodstock '94 (which is kind of a joke, but the best of the Woodstock anniversaries).
It really was the defining year of the '90s for most of the youth of the time, as well as historically important, either are anthem-worthy.
Damn, I'm old.
You now, that's pretty damn irritating to those of us 25 years or so older than you are.
Also, what's wrong with 1969?
MKK
If Kurt Cobain's suicide was a defining cultural moment, why didn't anyone write a hit song about it? We are talking about an "anthemic pop tune" here, after all. A year of suicide, murder, and genocide is hardly the stuff of pop anthems, even if it was also the year that the Clinton tax increase kicked in, leading to years of national prosperity.
If Kurt Cobain's suicide was a defining cultural moment, why didn't anyone write a hit song about it?
Neil Young wrote a whole album about it, though it wasn't a hit. I've heard people claim that the Foo Fighters song "I'll Stick Around" (which was a hit) is about Cobain, though I kind of prefer the interpretation that it's about Courtney Love.
Ultimately, though,you're right that suicide is less inspiring than, say, a plane crash.
I guess my point was '94 was life-changing for a lot of people, which to me is what a great anthemic song should be about - lost innocence and all that (then again, I'm not really into "pop" music, which seems to stay away from too dark of topics).
I think it's noteworthy that one of the most iconic songs from the '90s is about suicide (Pearl Jam's Jeremy).
Filter wrote a song about Cobain's suicide ("Hey Man Nice Shot"). It's pretty good and was at least kind of a hit.
Also in the interest of historical accuracy, Bryan Adams was nine years old in the summer of '69, which is a bit young to be in a band with other guys who are getting married. I guess he was like Stevie Wonder or something.
The Filter song is about the on-camera suicide of Budd Dwyer, a Pennsylvania state politician who committed suicide at a press conference, not Cobain. At least, that's the story I heard about it.
would have had to be about the summer of 79. Not because there was anything memorable in it, but because the following winter a high school kid had to realize there was something real ominous in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, at least for the ones living within sight of the inner German border. Things kinda went downhill from that.